Karimnagar: A speeding car reportedly driven by a minor hit roadside vendors warming themselves by a bonfire, killing four and injuring three others at Kaman Chowrasta here on a chilly Sunday morning.
Eyewitness said that the car took a U-turn, sped suddenly, hit a road divider and ran over the roadside vendors. The four occupants of the car fled from the scene, but were arrested later. Locals called the police and shifted the injured to the government main hospital.
The police found the car (TS02 EY 2121) belonged to local resident K. Rajendra Prasad and his minor son drove the car.
Five persons including the boy driver as also three minors who were in the car and vehicle owner Rajendra Prasad have been arrested.
Police said the car already had nine e-challans for traffic rule violations.
Police commissioner Satyanarayana presented the accused before the media in the evening. He said that around 6.15am, the 16-year-old son of Prasad, resident of Gayatrinagar, was driving the car with his three friends — two of them aged 14 years old — to the Ambedkar stadium to play badminton.
On his way to the stadium, he filled fuel in the car. While taking a U-turn, he claimed to have pressed the accelerator instead of applying brakes, raising the speed, lost control, hit a divider and ran over the victims.
Prasad tried to convince the police that he was at the wheel, but investigations established that his son, a Class 9 student, drove the car. A case under Section IPC 304 (ii) against the four persons in the car as well as Rajendra Prasad has been registered.
Police said the victims were part of a group of 50 families of migrant workers from Adilabad district staying in makeshift huts at Rekurthinagar and selling bric-a-brac on the city streets.
On Sunday morning, they had brought goat meat for sale and were warming themselves by a bonfire when the car ran over them. The deceased were Fariyad, 27, Sunitha, 28, Lalitha, 25, and Jyothi, 13. The injured were Rani, Padma and Avanthika.
Relatives of the victims along with locals staged a dharna and blocked the Karimnagar-Hyderabad national highway seeking action against the erring driver and his family as also adequate cash compensation.
BJP state president and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay and vice-chairman of the TS Planning Commission Vinaykumar called doctors to enquire about the condition of the injured. Minister Gangula Kamalakar announced Rs 10,000 as immediate assistance to the affected families.
